The film was originally planned to be released in 2011, but was rescheduled to April 11, 2012, in the United Kingdom and May 18, 2012, in the United States.[4] The film's world premiere was in Tokyo, Japan, on April 3, 2012.

In 2005, scientists discover an extrasolar planet, which they name Planet G, with conditions similar to Earth. In 2006 NASA transmits a powerful signal from a communications array in Hawaii. Meanwhile, slacker Alex Hopper gets arrested while attempting to impress Sam Shane, daughter of U.S. Pacific Fleet commanderAdmiral Terrance Shane. Stone Hopper, Alex's older brother and a naval officer, is infuriated at Alex's lack of motivation and forces Alex to join him in the U.S. Navy.

During the exercises five alien spacecraft arrive in response to the NASA signal. Their communications ship collides with a satellite, scattering debris across the planet and crashing in Hong Kong, causing heavy damage and casualties, while the four others land in the water near Hawaii. Sampson, John Paul Jones, and the JMSDFKongō class destroyerMyōkō investigate. Alex, Raikes, and Beast are sent to investigate, but when Alex approaches, the alien mothership reacts and creates a force field that traps the three warships. The Navy issues a blast from a fog horn, which is answered in kind by a sonic blast from one of the alien ships. The Navy fires a warning shot at the alien fleet, which then reevaluates the Earth ships' friend or foe status, changing the monitor color for the Navy ships from green to red. The aliens destroy the Sampson and Myōkō, and damage John Paul Jones, killing the commanding and executive officers. Alex sees his brother die and returns to his ship, where he is forced to take command, albeit reluctantly and to the disbelief of the crew, as the most senior officer left on the ship. Enraged, Alex orders an attack, but Beast manages to convince him to recover the survivors from Myōkō, including Captain Nagato, with whom Alex is in a rivalry. The alien ships send weapons to the islands that destroy the military equipment and island infrastructure, killing a large number of civilians when they destroy the freeway leading to a military base.

In Oahu, Sam, a physical therapist, is accompanying retired U.S. Army veteran and double amputee Mick Canales, on a mountain hike to help him adapt to his prosthetic legs. Sam and Mick run into some police officers who order them off the mountain. The cops head up the mountain and are ambushed and killed by aliens. Later, Sam and Mick run into scientist Cal Zapata, who works at the communications array and informs them that the aliens have killed his grad student and taken over the communications array, and they realize that the aliens are using it to signal back to their home planet.

At sea, naval personnel capture an alien from the communications ship who is unconscious. The alien attacks Alex when startled by a bright light and establishes a mind meld with him, showing him how the aliens have attacked and conquered other planets. After other aliens arrive to retrieve it, a further one infiltrates the ship, but Alex kills it by tricking it into the firing line of a 5"/54 caliber Mark 45 gun. On the John Paul Jones and thanks to the briefly captured alien, Ordy is able to determine that the aliens are sensitive to sunlight. However, they face difficulty because the alien force field has disabled radar functions. Nagata suggests using NOAA's tsunami warning buoys around Hawaii to track the aliens as he has been using it to track other countries' ships for every RIMPAC game.

Ashore, Mick forces Zapata to retrieve a spectrum analyzer that allows Sam and Mick to contact the John Paul Jones and relay that the satellite used by the communications array will be in position in four hours and that the aliens will be able use it to contact their planet. Zapata manages to take the analyzer, and, though he is temporarily caught by an alien, successfully escape.

During a night battle, the John Paul Jones sinks two alien ships but is unable to hit the evasively maneuvering third. Alex decides to lure the third alien vessel close to shore at dawn, where he and Nagata shoot out its bridge windows as the sunrise blinds the aliens. John Paul Jones destroys the last alien escort vessel only to fall prey to their mothership's long range weapons. The crew abandon ship as the John Paul Jones is destroyed by these weapons and sunk.

Realizing the aliens are attempting to contact a larger invasion fleet, Alex and the survivors of the John Paul Jones and Myōkō return to Pearl Harbor and assume command of USS Missouri, a decommissioned battleship turned into a museum ship. They reactivate the battleship with the aid of the retired veterans preserving her, but they end up coming face to face with the alien mothership. In the ensuing battle, the Missouri's 16-inch main guns severely damage the alien mothership, destroying its force field in process. Meanwhile, Mick, Sam and Zapata distract the aliens to buy the Missouri more time. Alex uses the last shell to destroy the communications array on the island, leaving the Missouri defenseless. With the force field down, Admiral Shane scrambles the fleet and AustralianF/A-18 fighters from the RIMPAC fleet, who arrive and save the crew by eliminating the alien threat.

A ceremony is held to honor the Navy personnel, where Alex is promoted to lieutenant commander. He is presented with a Silver Star and also accepts Stone's posthumous Navy Cross. After the ceremony, Alex is given an offer to become a Navy SEAL, and then asks Admiral Shane for his daughter's hand in marriage. The admiral initially refuses but invites Alex to lunch to discuss the matter, referencing how Alex and Sam met.

In a post-credits scene, three teenagers and a handyman in Scotland discover a crashed alien pod. When they open it, an alien hand reaches out, and they run off in terror.

Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker and Peter Berg promoting the film at WonderCon 2012.

Battleship was to begin filming in Australia's Gold Coast in 2010, but the production company changed location due to a lack of Australian government tax incentives and a high estimated budget of $209 million.[5]

Jeremy Renner was originally considered for the role of Hopper, but the actor chose to star in a Paul Thomas Anderson drama filming at roughly the same time.[10][11] In April 2010, it was reported that Taylor Kitsch had been cast as Alex Hopper,[11][12] Alexander Skarsgård played his brother Stone Hopper, Brooklyn Decker stars as Sam, Hopper's fiancee and Liam Neeson as Admiral Shane, Sam's father and Hopper's superior officer.[13][14] Barbadian R&B singer Rihanna makes her acting debut in the film, as a sailor.[15] In an interview with GQ, Berg explained how he came up with the idea to cast her. He realized she could act after seeing her 2009 interview about the Chris Brown assault on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer during which he found her "intelligent and articulate", and her appearance on Saturday Night Live.[16] She accepted the role because she wanted "to do something badass" and also because it wasn't a role too big for her to play.[17]Tadanobu Asano also has a role in the film as the commander of a Japanese Kongō-class destroyer. Double amputee U.S. Army ColonelGregory Gadson, who had never acted before, plays LTC Mick Canales.[18] He was cast after Berg saw a picture of him in the National Geographic Magazine.[19]

The film marks the reunion between former co-stars Kitsch and Jesse Plemons, who previously worked together on Berg's TV series Friday Night Lights. Berg said he loves working with friends and explained he knew how comfortable Kitsch was with Plemons, "I know that he’s really good for Taylor and he makes Taylor better. So, I wrote that whole part for Jesse." He added, "I never thought of it as a Friday Night Lights reunion. I thought of it as protection, bringing a trusted family member in."[20]

U.S. Navy sailors were used as extras in various parts of this film. Sailors from assorted commands in Navy Region Hawaii assisted with line handling to take Missouri in and out of port for a day of shooting in mid 2010. A few months later, the production team put out a casting call for sailors stationed at various sea commands at Naval Station Mayport, Florida to serve as extras.[21] Sailors were also taken from various ships stationed at Naval Station Mayport, Jacksonville, Florida: USS Hué City, USS Carney and USS Vicksburg were some of the ships that provided sailors.[22]

"Working with composers often is a really frustrating experience because you speak a different language and, oftentimes, they take two or three jobs, at the same time. They're difficult and pretentious and they're tormented artists. I'm not going to name names, but most of them are. One guy who isn't is Hans Zimmer, who taught Steve Jablonsky. We had a couple of meetings and I came up with this idea. The day I met with him, I had had an MRI for my neck, and they make that really scary sound. I was like, "I just had this MRI, and when I was in there, I was thinking about the aliens, and it was really scary." And he was like, "Oh, that's awesome!" He went and recorded MRIs and made music out of MRIs, and that's the theme of the aliens in our film. He is no drama, and just goes and gets it done. The score is big and awesome and scary and driving. At times, it's very simple and acoustic and touching and emotional. He's the best I've ever worked with."[23]

The film earned $303,025,485, of which $65,422,625 was in North America.[24]

The film opened outside North America on Wednesday, April 11, 2012, more than five weeks before its North America release, earning $7.4 million.[25] Through Friday, April 13, the film had earned a 3-day total of $25 million.[26] By the end of its opening weekend, it earned $55.2 million from 26 markets, ranking second behind the 3D re-release of Titanic.[27]

However, on its second weekend, it topped the box office outside North America, with $60 million.[28] In South Korea, it achieved the highest-grossing opening day for a non-sequel and the third-highest overall ($2.8 million).[26] In comparison to other Hasbro films, Battleship '​s opening in the UK (£3.76 million) was behind the first Transformers (£8.72 million), but did better than G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (£1.71 million).[29]

In North America, Battleship grossed $8.8 million on its opening day (Friday, May 18, 2012), with $420,000 originating from midnight showings,[30] and finished the weekend with $25.5 million. It settled in second place for its opening day and opening weekend behind Marvel's The Avengers.[31][32][33] Its opening weekend grosses were well below the anticipated $35–$40 million range that Universal and director Peter Berg were hoping for.[34]

The film has received generally negative reviews from critics. Metacritic has given the film an average score of 41 out of 100 based on 39 reviews.[35]Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 34% based on reviews from 208 critics, with a rating average of 4.6 out of 10. The site's consensus reads: "It may offer energetic escapism for less demanding filmgoers, but Battleship is too loud, poorly written, and formulaic to justify its expense -- and a lot less fun than its source material."[36]

Megan Lehmann of The Hollywood Reporter thought that the "impressive visual effects and director Peter Berg's epic set pieces fight against an armada of cinematic clichés and some truly awful dialogue."[37]Empire magazine's Nick de Semlyen felt there was a lack of character development and memorable action shots, and sums up his review of the movie in one word: "Miss."[38]

Many reviews panned the "based on a board game" concept driving the film, although some, such as Jason Di Rosso from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National, claimed the ridiculousness of the setup is "either sheer joy or pure hell – depending on how seriously you take it", while de Semlyen "had to admire [the film's creators] jumping through hoops to engineer a sequence that replicates the board game."[38][39][40] Several compared the film to Michael Bay's Transformers film series in terms of quality and cinematic style, with Giles Hardie of The Sydney Morning Herald claiming that the movie "finds the same balance between action-packed imagination and not taking the premise seriously that made Michael Bay's original Transformers such a joyride."[37][39] Andrew Harrison of Q magazine called the film "crushingly stupid".[41] Film critic Kenneth Turan, in a review written for the Los Angeles Times, also expressed disappointment, criticizing the film's "humanoid aliens", stating that they are "as ungainly as the movie itself, clunking around in awkward, protective suits." He called the content "all very earnest", but added "it's not a whole lot of fun".[42]

Other critics were less harsh for Battleship: Writing for Time, Steven James Snyder was somewhat positive because he had low expectations of the film. He wrote, "The creative team behind this ocean-bound thriller decided to fill the narrative black hole with a few ingredients all but absent from today’s summer tent poles – namely mystery, nostalgia and a healthy dose of humility" and described it as "an unlikely mix of Independence Day, Pearl Harbor, Jurassic Park and The Hunt for Red October".[43] Giving it a B+ grade, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly said, "For every line of howler dialogue that should have been sunk, there's a nice little scene in which humans have to make a difficult decision. For every stretch of generic sci-fi-via-CGI moviemaking, there's a welcome bit of wit."[44]The Washington Post gave the film a three-star rating out of four commenting it is "an invigorating blast of cinematic adrenaline".[45]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2½ stars out of 4, praising the climax as "an honest-to-God third act, instead of just settling for nonstop fireballs and explosions, as Bay likes to do. I don't want to spoil it for you. Let's say the Greatest Generation still has the right stuff and leave it at that."[46]